Booking Maxwell

Maxwell Biography

Maxwell was born Gerald Maxwell Rivera in the early 1970’s. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York and experienced tragedy when he was only three years old and his father was killed in a plane crash. To cope with the loss, Maxwell turned to the church, and found solace in its gospel choir, where his earliest love of music began. By the time he was a teenager, he’d started writing his own music and learning to play piano.

Maxwell began performing around town in New York in the early 1990’s, and garnered some interest with his first demo. His shows caught the attention of a number of record companies, and in 1994 he signed with Columbia Records. Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite was released in 1996 and was slow to rise on the charts. But the song “Ascension (Don’t Ever Wonder)” caught on after its release, and BET featured Maxwell and the single on the show In Your Ear. The exposure was exactly what Maxwell needed, and the album eventually went on to multi-platinum status, earning a Grammy Award and solidifying Maxwell’s career as a performer.

After Urban Hang Suite, Maxwell released an MTV Unplugged album (1997), Embrya (1998), and Now (2001), all equally successful albums featuring the singles “Fortunate,” “Lifetime,” and “This Woman’s Work.” After a lengthy hiatus, Maxwell returned to music in 2009 with BLACKsummers’night, which debuted at number one and launched the hit single “Pretty Wings.” Since that comeback, Maxwell has also experienced enormous success live on stage, launching the tours BLACKsummers’night Tour (2009), and Maxwell & Jill Scott: The Tour (2010.)

For his achievements, Maxwell has been recognized with six Grammy nominations in 2010, but also for a series of other awards throughout the course of his career, including: multiple BET, American Music Awards, and Grammy Award nominations; a Billboard Music Award for “Fortunate,” (R&B Single of the Year in 1999); Multiple Image Award nominations with one win (for Outstanding Male Artist in 2010), and multiple Soul Train Award nominations, with five wins.

With such a recent comeback that exceeds the success of his debut, Maxwell is just getting started. He has plans for additional albums and tours in the near future.